Ryan McDonagh heals from broken foot without having to go under the knife. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

In the current New York sports climate, it was tempting to sarcastically ask Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh on Monday whether his coaches will be imposing a "minutes limit" this season to protect the right foot he broke last spring.

The reality, of course, is that McDonagh played on that broken foot in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, once logged 53 minutes and 21 seconds in a 2012 second-round triple-overtime win in Washington, and has applied his trademark work ethic this summer to rehabilitate completely from the injury to enter training camp with no restrictions.

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"It's good. It feels pretty much normal now," McDonagh, 26, said on Court 12 of the U.S. Open at a Labor Day event to promote multi-sport childhood participation for kids. "I'm not even really thinking about (the foot) on a daily basis, so it's nice. It doesn't get sore after skates and I'm able to do everything I want to do in the weight room training wise, so hopefully in that way it's in the past now."

McDonagh was fortunate enough to avoid surgery on his foot since the bone was healing normally on its own, which doctors informed him in mid-June. Instead of playing with plates in his foot, enduring pain this season, and requiring a second surgery to remove them, McDonagh's body has healed naturally.

So he has been thrilled in the past week to skate with approximately 15 early Rangers arrivals and experience "nothing at all" in the way of discomfort or restrictions.

"I don't do any after-training treatment for it or anything like that, so in that aspect it's continuing to get stronger," he said.

McDonagh was an appropriate speaker and participant at Monday's event to launch thousands of USTA Free Tennis Play Events during National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. How's this for a multi-sport athlete?

He was the 2007 Minnesota Mr. Hockey playing at Cretin-Derham High School after winning the state championship as a junior, and he was All-State in both baseball and football. He was a gridiron standout as an outside linebacker and free safety as a sophomore, and he played centerfield on the diamond on his way to winning a state championship as a senior.

McDonagh was a leader on teams in high school and is now entering his second season as captain of the Rangers, a role he needed time to grow into both on ice and in the locker room. But he says it's become more "a part of me;" more "comfortable."

Broken foot and all, Ryan McDonagh (r.) grinds through the playoffs with the Rangers last season. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

"It makes me feel a lot more comfortable in it and more mature in that role," McDonagh said of entering Year Two of wearing the "C." "It's something that's feeling more natural now and a part of me, trying not to change who I am, just try and be a good teammate, someone guys can look for as an example on and off the ice and bounce questions off about what it's like to be a New York Ranger and what we're trying to accomplish here."

As both Rangers captain and a 2014 U.S. Olympian, McDonagh now will be taking part in the NHL's Tuesday Media Tour and a Wednesday World Cup of Hockey media event in Toronto. He and Henrik Lundqvist are the faces of an organization that has gotten close to a Stanley Cup several times but hasn't gotten over the hump.

The hope is that offseason forward acquisitions Emerson Etem,Viktor Stalberg and Jarret Stoll can help provide that goal, that big play, that spark that's been in some of the Rangers' biggest moments from 2012 on.

"You certainly hope so," McDonagh said. "That's the idea. There's not as much change this year as some other teams experienced, but for us that's a good thing hopefully - that management believes in us and the group that's been on this run the last couple years. A lot of the same guys are back. From the pieces we've added, just being around a few of them this week, it's a lot to be excited for as far as where they're gonna fit in and gives us plenty of options as far as combinations with guys who are willing to do whatever they can to win games for us."

Until the Rangers win, of course, McDonagh will have to answer frequent questions about their heartbreaking defeats and inability to win it all. Until the Rangers win, McDonagh's answer won't change, either.

"It still stings," he said of losing in the Eastern Conference finals. "Obviously, you can think back to when we lost to the Kings, too. Those are tough memories and lessons that keep you going, keep you driving to get better both as a team and as an individual."

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"With Tampa being the most recent (team to beat the Rangers), the only thing you can do is prepare for another season and start from day one and go from there. You can't think big picture. We never do with our group, and that's what's great about us."

The Rangers will continue informal skates until training camp opens officially with physicals on Sept. 17.